User:Kylejf/James Armstrong

'''Civil Rights Activist/Barber (1923-2009)'''

In 1957 he initiated a class-action lawsuit which resulted in the desegregating of city schools in Birmingham, Alabama. He registered his children to attend school at an all-White public school, Graymont Elementary. When they were denied, he filed a lawsuit with the help of Arthur Shores and Constance Bakers Motley.

On Bloody Sunday in 1965, carried the American flag across the Edmund Pettus. When the protesters classed with the police, Armstrong fell to his knees, but famously never let the flag drop to the ground.

He continued to march in the anniversary of the every year.

Armstrong was a founding member of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR).

 Early Life

Armstrong was born in 1923 in Dallas County. He was drafted into the Army at 18. Spent 2 years in the European Theatre.